"We need an app" often means "we need our thing on people’s phones." Those are not the same requirement, and the difference can save you a lot of money.
What a PWA gives you
A progressive web app is a website that behaves like a real app. It installs to the home screen, works offline, and sends push notifications, with no app-store fees, no review delays, and no separate iOS and Android codebases to maintain.
One caveat worth knowing before you decide. On iPhone, push notifications only work once someone has added the app to their home screen through the Safari share sheet, and most people do not know that option exists. If notifications are central to how your product works rather than a nice extra, price in the drop-off or go native.
The difference, side by side
PWA
- One codebase for iPhone and Android.
- You ship a fix at 2pm and everyone has it at 2pm.
- No 30% app-store cut, no annual developer fees.
- Nobody has to visit an app store to get it.
- Push notifications on iPhone need an extra step from the user.
Native
- Two codebases, or one cross-platform one, either way more to maintain.
- Every update waits for Apple to approve it.
- App-store fees and a revenue cut on anything you sell inside.
- You appear in App Store search, which is real marketing.
- Full access to the camera, Bluetooth and background location.
When you genuinely need native
- You need deep hardware features: advanced camera control, Bluetooth, background location.
- Being in the App Store is itself part of the product or the marketing.
- You need the absolute smoothest performance for something graphically heavy, like a game.
